


A Patient Force

by Witchy1ness



Category: Fate: The Winx Saga (TV)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Saul's down but not out, after the finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29294826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchy1ness/pseuds/Witchy1ness
Summary: Saul has plenty of time to think - and plan - as he languishes in jail.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	A Patient Force

**Author's Note:**

> Winx and all recognizable characters and settings are the property of Iginio Straffi, Archery Pictures, and Brian Young. I'm just having fun with some of them :)
> 
> Title is from Edmund Burke: “Our patience will achieve more than our force.”
> 
> Reviews and constructive criticism welcome, flames will be ignored.

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Aster Dell.

A name that has echoed in his nightmares for sixteen years.

The one silver lining about being stuck in jail, Saul thinks with black humour, is that it gives one time to think; an especially precious opportunity when events have been happening so rapidly he’s practically developed mental whiplash.

The shock that Andreas is _alive_! And that he’d been hiding for sixteen years –

Saul still can’t quite wrap his head around the whole thing.

(He’s also pretty sure he hasn’t learned The Whole Thing, as of yet.)

The one thing he _has_ grasped is just how deep Andreas’ feelings of indebtedness to Rosalind run; the man essentially sacrificed _his own son_ in order to further…whatever goals it is that Rosalind has in mind.

(Saul rather doubts they are good ones.)

The guilt and grief he’s carried for sixteen years over killing Andreas has been replaced by something he’s not quite able to put a name to, yet. Relief, for sure, and anger; but that’s barely scratching the surface.

And that’s not even factoring in the emotions he’s been experiencing over the whole ‘being arrested for a murder that turned out to be an attempted murder _from sixteen years ago’_ situation he’s found himself in!

(Granted, it isn’t like there’s a statute of limitations for things like that, and he has to grudgingly admit that it is a rather masterful stroke on Rosalind’s part to get him out of the way. Solaria still carries out capital punishment, after all; not that he plans on letting them get that far.)

On the whole, there are entirely too many pieces falling into place for Saul to think they haven’t been playing into Rosalind’s hands this whole time.

Aster Dell was Rosalind’s first move, he could see that now.

If he, Farah, and Ben had known the people there were Blood Witches, well, the outcome would have been the same except that Andreas and he wouldn’t have fought; and that, Saul thinks, was likely the real point of the whole charade.

Rosalind had said she needed someone to raise Beatrix; assuming Andreas was her only option, a fake death left him free and clear to raise the girl – and perhaps it had also been a way to test Saul himself; to see if he might perhaps prove willing to fall in line when the only other option was to kill his best friend?

But there _had_ to have been others involved; Andreas had been saved by _someone_ , as Rosalind had been with Ben and Farah when Saul had caught up with them.

(And he should’ve probed deeper when Rosalind had said she’d taken care of Andreas’ body, but Saul had been struggling with the grief and guilt of what he had done and could only be pathetically grateful that he hadn’t had to deal with it himself.)

Either way, things had fallen out as they had, and Rosalind got her surrogate father-figure for Beatrix.

Then there was the matter of Beatrix and Bloom themselves; if it was actually true that Aster Dell were Blood Witches – which, while relieving a metric ton of guilt, was too pat an explanation for Saul to swallow without proof – and had kidnapped the girls, had Rosalind known they were there?

She, Farah, and Ben had leveled the magical equivalent of a nuke on the village; _no one_ should have been able to survive the hit, and yet the two girls had.

(That Bloom had made sense, in hindsight; Beatrix, not so much, unless her potential was perhaps just as high as Bloom’s, and wasn’t that a chilling thought?)

Regardless, it all came together very neatly for Rosalind: fake Andreas’ death so that there was someone to raise the girl who could work with Rosalind from inside Alfea; hide Bloom in the Other Realm so that no one would suspect she was alive, and plant in her a hint that would drive Bloom to find – and then free – Rosalind from her self-imposed incarceration.

Then – as now – Saul was of the firm opinion they should have just killed her. Rosalind is no less a danger to the Realms now than she had been then; in fact, with Bloom’s subsequent transformation – and Queen Luna’s backing – it is in all likelihood that she is _more_ of a danger now.

And Rosalind would, of course, want to be the one to shape Bloom’s potential; and while it was certainly conceivable that she could have survived the sixteen years it took for the girl to show up at Alfea, the physical decline she may have faced during those years had been negated by being placed in stasis.

Steps one, two, and three taken care of, all that was standing in Rosalind’s way were her three other students; and all that was needed to take care of _them_ was to dangle a sword above Ben’s children and the man would (publically, anyway) immediately fall in line, bring Andreas back and slap Saul with his attempted murder and haul his ass off to prison, and Farah –

Sitting stiffly on his cot, hands clenched into fists on his knees, Saul fights back a wave of grief.

Though he hasn’t had any contact with anyone from the school since his incarceration, there is no question of what has likely already happened to Farah.

Queen Luna – and damn the woman for her arrogant, insufferable, short-sightedness – may have had Farah removed from her post as Headmistress of Alfea, but she would still be a threat to Rosalind.

And Rosalind never suffered threats when she could remove them.

He wonders what they would tell the students, and whether the students would believe it.

(He’s pretty sure Sky and the other Specialists, as well as Bloom and her group, won’t, which makes both pride and worry churn in his gut.)

It’s a little much for a man to take in at the best of times; and having barely recovered from his brush with a Burned One-induced near-death experience is most definitely _not_ the best of times. The biggest concern is that Saul can’t figure out _why_ ; why is Rosalind doing what she is, and why now? And what part do the Burned Ones – because he can’t see that their resurgence _isn’t_ tied into all of this – play?

On top and tangled with it all is the weight of being worried for the boy (assumedly) orphaned as a direct consequence of Saul’s actions, a boy he’s come to view as his own.

If _he’s_ this confused, he can hardly imagine what Sky must be going through. Going from believing your father had been killed in battle sixteen years ago to learning that your adoptive father had been the one to do the deed, to finding out that it – and more, besides – had all been a lie…Saul wants so badly to see if he’s alright it’s almost a physical ache.

Not that he’s entirely sure Sky would _want_ to see him, right now. There had been a distance between them ever since Saul had finally confessed to killing Andreas (and to discover that the emotional toll _that_ entire fiasco had exacted on him _had been entirely unnecessary_ was the kind of gallows’ humour that had Saul grinning in a manner that made his guards shift uneasily), and now that the hero of all the stories he’s told Sky over the years is here in the flesh…

Although, come to think of it, he hadn’t had time to fill Sky in on the whole ‘your-father-didn’t-actually-massacre-a-town-full-of-innocent-people’ revelation, and Saul feels his lips twist in derision as he bitterly concludes it likely doesn't matter; Andreas will probably fill the boy in, no doubt putting his own spin on Saul and _his_ actions.

The shock is starting to wear off and anger creeps in; Saul begins to pace, trying to distract himself from the evermore appealing thought of breaking out of jail by working his way through muscle-specific stretches.

He is slowly coming to the unpalatable conclusion that he is likely going to have to become a fugitive. Granted, by attempting an escape he could be playing right into Rosalind’s hands _again_ by giving her stooges a legitimate reason to kill him without having to bother with the fuss of a fake trial.

And even if he does manage to get away, Rosalind will immediately suspect he’ll go back to Alfea or try to get in contact with Sky; which means Saul can’t do either of those.

On the other hand, by following along with this farce of a situation he might wind up in a better position…

Saul mutters a curse as he scrubs his hands through his hair and over his face. He _wished_ he knew what was going on at the school! He supposes it is too much to hope that Ben would be allowed to come see him, but maybe Rosalind would stop by to gloat (or try to convert him again?) and he could maybe figure out what her plan is.

Forcing himself to sit once more, he makes himself breathe slowly and evenly. He’ll keep up with his pacing and his stretches, that way if an opportunity to escape happens to present itself – regardless of if Rosalind comes by or not – he’ll be ready.

If there is one thing he _is_ _n’t_ going to do, it's going out without a fight, this time.

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**Author's Note:**

> Three guesses as to who my favourite character is :D


End file.
